DargonZine
Volume 14, Number 4 |
Distributed: 4/28/2001
Circulation: 744 |
 |
DargonZine is the publication vehicle of the
Dargon Project, a collaborative group of aspiring fantasy writers on the
Internet. We welcome new readers and writers interested in joining the
project. Please address all correspondence to
<dargon@shore.net>
or visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.dargonzine.org/, or our FTP site at
ftp://users.primushost.com/members/d/a/dargon/.
Issues and public discussion are posted to newsgroup
rec.mag.dargon.
DargonZine 14-4, ISSN 1080-9910, (C) Copyright April, 2001
by the Dargon Project. Editor: Ornoth D.A. Liscomb
<ornoth@shore.net>,
Assistant Editor: Jon Evans
<godling@mnsinc.com>.
All rights reserved. All rights are reassigned to the individual
contributors. Stories and artwork appearing herein may not be reproduced
or redistributed without the explicit permission of their creators, except
in the case of freely reproducing entire issues for further distribution.
Reproduction of issues or any portions thereof for profit is forbidden.
|
Editorial
egardless of whether or not you pay much attention to who writes
the stories that appear in DargonZine, I'd like you to take a moment to
join me in recognizing one of our heroes: Mark Murray.
After six years with us, Mark has decided to leave the project, and
his stories which appear in this issue will be the last he sees through
to publication. I've already written quite a bit about Mark's history
with the project in DargonZine 11-9's Editorial, which highlights
several of his accomplishments: being one of our most prolific writers,
as well as contributing to the project by establishing our new writer
mentoring program, helping create new maps of Dargon, and hosting our
2000 Writers' Summit.
But beyond all these things, I'd like to celebrate a different kind
of contribution that Mark has made. At a time when our new writers
sometimes feel that their creativity is hindered by the rules we've
adopted and a huge body of existing knowledge about Dargon, Mark
represents an eloquent counter-argument. In a short time, he's been
remarkably successful at introducing new characters and places to
Dargon, integrating them with the rest of the milieu, and encouraging
other writers to make use of those new elements. But what's noteworthy
isn't the quantity of things he's written into the Dargon milieu, but
their consistent quality. His characters are interesting people whom
we'd like to hear more about, and they've become integral members of the
Dargon cast.
There are lots of examples that should be familiar to you. Mark's
most extensive storyline has been the long-running series about Raphael
and his curse-bearing wife, Megan. Along the way, we've also been
introduced to Anam, the wolf they befriended, their streetwise sidekick
Lylle, and the memorable team of Merrif the wizard and Niatha, his
magical familiar.
Mark also has written a series of stories following two young boys,
Matthew and Ben, as they learn about life in Dargon, and in doing so
Mark has created the widely-known brotherhood of urchins called the
shadow boys.
He has, interestingly enough, given us both Dargon's best and worst
taverns. These inns have been widely used by other writers, and thus
should be readily recognized. Spirit's Haven, where Raphael and Megan
stayed for a time, is run by a kindly woman named May. At the other end
of the spectrum is the Shattered Spear, whose owners Jamis and Jahlena
are notorious for their dealings in prostitution, extortion, and many
other types of unsavory behavior.
Most recently, Mark took the point in creating a town called
Northern Hope, which was founded by refugees fleeing their
Beinison-occupied homeland. Mark's "Undermined Hope" in this issue, as
well as his "Beginning Morals" which appeared in our previous issue,
are the first two stories to use this location, setting the groundwork
for another way for our writers to collaborate and learn from one
another.
So although Mark wrote a lot and undertook a number of side
projects to help DargonZine thrive, I think the thing that really makes
him one of our heroes is his demonstrated knack for coming up with
memorable characters and places, and his enthusiasm for sharing those
creations with DargonZine's readers as well as his fellow writers.
Dargon is a vastly richer place because of the contributions his stories
have made over the years, and we'll miss his presence going forward.
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